Can anyone who knows the in & outs of the grade 2 MCL tear please tell me if there is any chance he'll play this week? Also, would it be the right thing to do by playing him? Has he had sufficient time to heal, and what kind of precautions should be taken by the team if he suits up this Saturday?

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January 2nd, 2012, 1:59 am

conversion02

RIP Killer

Joined: January 26th, 2005, 9:34 pmPosts: 10773Location: Sycamore, IL

Re: Delmas' injury

He was jogging and doing high knees without a shirt on prior to the game. Didn't look like he had any sort of pain at all

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January 2nd, 2012, 2:49 am

The Legend

HC – Jim Caldwell

Joined: February 11th, 2005, 3:01 pmPosts: 4699Location: WSU

Re: Delmas' injury

Delmas should play, Grade 2 MCL tear can be painful initially and result in swelling in the knee but is not a devastating injury by any means. The other issue is that he also had his knee "scoped" which probably means there was a meniscal tear but possibly more was done, the MCL cannot be addressed with such a surgery. Recovery after a simple knee scope though is simple and once the swelling in the knee goes down he should be good to go in 2-3 weeks - I think its been 5 weeks or so now.

ALLEN PARK - The statistic may not take into consideration all of the factors influencing Detroit's pass defense, but the Lions have surrendered 211 yards per game through the air in the 10 games Louis Delmas started and finished at safety.

In six games Delmas missed with a sprained MCL - including the game in which he was injured - the figure ballooned to 332 yards per game.

Sure, it's important to look at which teams Detroit was facing, who else may have been injured, how many points the Lions offense scored. Still, there's no denying what Delmas brings to the defense.

"He just brings personality," said head coach Jim Schwartz. "Personality, intensity - I mean, it's a combination of a lot of things. Football's obviously very important to him, but he has fun playing it. (He) comes to work, you know, it's not a job to him. Football is in him, it's what he likes to do and it shows on game day, it shows on practice days. I think that has some contagious nature to it."

Needless to say, the Lions were happy to see the "soul" of their defense back on the field for a second consecutive practice. Though Delmas was inactive against Green Bay, he was listed as a limited participant on Friday and showed some bounce in his step

"Well, it's easy to have bounce. He's fresh," Schwartz said of Delmas, who hasn't played since the Thanksgiving Day game against the Packers. "We obviously miss him on the field. He's a guy that we drafted to be one of the cornerstones defensively. He's right in the middle of our defense, does a good job of communication."

But it's not just the plays Delmas makes that Detroit misses, said Schwartz. The way he helps raise his teammates' intensity and level of play is just as critical to the Lions.

"He's a very good player, run and pass, covers a lot of ground," Schwartz said, "but more than that - brings a lot of soul to our defense. I think that's one of the things that we miss, not schematically, but we miss when a player like that is not on the field. He's trending in the right direction and we hope we'll be able to get him out there."